The Queen's Conquer

Chapter 47 : Two-Faced

Venery • [veh-nr-ee]
The art, act, or practice of hunting; the sport of the chase.

🖤

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We're sprinting up the hundreds of stairs it took to get down here—well, I'm sprinting while Max is struggling behind me.

"Will you please slow down?!" he orders.

I finally come to a stop, turning around to see the male is clutching the stone wall to keep himself from completely falling over with exhaustion.

"Max, we need to get out of here so I can tell Samuel about all of this," I say. I've considered mindlinking him the information, but we already risk our lives the longer we stay. "There's no time to rest."

"Well, if my memory serves me right, I'm still fully human and you're half-wolf, half-ancient, so clearly I'm at a disadvantage here," he grumbles, finally standing up straight. "And I've been locked in that goddamn house for months now, so my physical strength isn't exactly where it should be, either."

"I—" I frown and take a moment to stop letting my disorganized thoughts control what comes out of my mouth. "I-I'm sorry," I say. "There's just so much I can't stop worrying about. And I haven't exactly considered if you've been okay during all of this."

His chocolate eyes find me, staring up from the few steps that separate us. "It's fine," he sighs. "I understand getting out of here is crucial, but I just need a minute."

"Yeah, of course," I say.

"And I also want to apologize," he goes on, "about earlier. I just wasn't thinking straight when I kissed—"

"You don't have to, Max," I cut him off, afraid to have this conversation right now.

"No, I do," he says firmly. "It was inappropriate and shitty timing and you clearly—"

"Max, I loved you," I announce, my words echoing down the stairwell. He freezes at this, but I don't let his reaction determine what I've been wanting to say since we were kids. "I loved you at one point in my life. And I never told you because I was scared it would change our friendship and I was even more terrified because I knew my parents didn't want me marrying a soldier." My head spins, hating myself for confessing such personal feelings with him now of all moments.

And by the looks of it, I think my words have broken Max. "Y-You—"

"But I don't think those feelings even matter anymore because I love Samuel," I continue. "I love him and you're always going to think that's fucked up because of his history, and I get it." I run a shaky hand through my tangled hair. "I know none of this is ideal, but there's also so much you'll never know about the way I feel for him."

When I eventually cease my rambling, Max's mouth is cracked open with shock, unsure of what to say.

"I just thought I should reassure you," I say, quieting my voice now, "that the kiss wasn't in vain of some supposed love interest you have with me. But it was still extremely inappropriate."

I watch his throat bob, even in this horribly lit stairwell. "Thank you for telling me," he murmurs. "But we should get going because I'm pretty sure I just heard footsteps above us."

The blood drains from my face and I resume my bolt towards the entrance without reconsidering if I want to add anything else to our intimate conversation.

***

We reach above ground after ages of circling up those relentless stairs. Just as we had left it, the small history section remains a scramble of scattered books, and my blood has now dried against the corner of the bookshelf over those scrawled-out words.